NEWSLETTER INSERTS - ON THE VIRTUE OF JUSTICE

Dear friends. The first reading at Mass for the Twenty-Fifth Sunday of Ordinary time is from the prophet Amos who is the great advocate of social justice. Below are some inspiring quotes for parish newsletters and other tools of communication on the cardinal virtue of justice.

‘Justice without mercy is cruelty; mercy without justice means the dissolution of all right order’

St Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Matthew, 5.7.74.

‘Justice outshines the other moral virtues because the common good surpasses the individual good of one person. Accordingly, Aristotle declares that justice is the most splendid virtue’.

St Thomas Aquinas, Summa theologiae 2a 2ae.58.12

‘A State which is not governed according to justice would be just a bunch of thieves’

St Augustine, City of God, IV, 4.

‘Certainly, as members of the Church, we should not stand apart from others. All should regard us as friends and neighbours, like the apostles, who “enjoyed the good will of all the people” (Acts 2:47; cf. 4:21.33; 5:13). Yet at the same time we must dare to be different, to point to ideals other than those of this world, testifying to the beauty of generosity, service, purity, perseverance, forgiveness, fidelity to our personal vocation, prayer, the pursuit of justice and the common good, love for the poor, and social friendship’.

Pope Francis, Christus Vivit, 36.

‘Catholic social teaching combats specific structures of sin which impede the full realization of those who are in any way oppressed by them’.

Pope St John Paul II

‘Justice is giving the other person their due’.

Plato's Republic

‘From our baptism, we Christians have received his Spirit of mercy but also his Spirit of justice. We are called to share in his passion to put things right or to balance the scales again. If I am doing well but others are deprived, as a Christian, I can never be fully at peace. Like Christ, I must carry this spirit of justice into all areas of life – from filling out my tax returns, to telling the truth, to fair play on the sporting field, to an interest in the laws of our country and how wealth is distributed fairly – all of these are areas of great importance and cry out for the contribution of Christians with a sharp social conscience who are willing to fight for a better and more just world’.

Fr Billy Swan